Applicant has continued to examine the mechanics of throwing a ball since his U.S. Pat. No. 6,129,076 issued. That throwing apparatus and method marked a distinct improvement in the art of throwing machines in many ways. Nonetheless, there are several features of that state of the art invention that are problematical. First, that throwing machine requires the ball to be added after the device is in the cocked or armed position. Second, speed and direction corrections are not easily made between throws. Third, while gross up and down correction is possible, no subtle raising or lowering of the pitch is possible and no side to side corrections are enabled without moving the entire base. And, finally, no choice of speed and direction is enabled after speed and direction settings have been made.
Thus, there is a need in the art for providing a pitching machine to which the ball can be added prior to cocking the device; that easily allows for speed and direction corrections between throws; that also enables the user to adjust the pitch up and down and from side to side without moving the base and that provides a user with a choice of speed and direction settings after the settings have been made and during the process of cocking the device to throw a pitch. It, therefore is an object of this invention to provide an improved pitching apparatus and method that is easy and safe to use, that is inexpensive and easy to transport and set up and that throws a ball accurately with the desired velocity over a range of possible velocities.